- “Talking with” rather than “talking at” tends to engender better reciprocal listening among your audience and better relationships. Using open-ended questions and balancing advocacy and inquiry are powerful ways to bring more transparency and agility into your approach. As you get started, notice what your habitual pattern is — do you tend towards more advocacy or more inquiry — and be intentional about balancing that out.
- Skillful conversation involves stating your position with clarity and conviction (advocacy) while also using skill to draw out new information and the perspectives of others (inquiry). Remember, a balance between advocacy and inquiry brings about the best results; moving too far toward one or the other tends to lead to conflict. Too much advocacy can prevent us from hearing necessary information and fantastic ideas; too much inquiry (hiding) tends to eventually lead to conflict, though it may be less obvious.
- This lesson includes numerous sample statements and questions to use to bring more of an open and balanced approach into the language you use as you move through workplace conversations. Experiment with them and make them your own.
- Running a meeting well is a key part of helping your audience listen. By employing a series of process moves in how you run your meetings, common triggers that typically distract our audience are addressed and removed as potential sources of conflict before they can get in the way of your effectiveness.